


Professor's Pet

by Diary



Category: Scandal (TV)
Genre: Bechdel Test Fail, Bottle Episode Fic, Canon Character of Color, Canon Gay Character, Canon Queer Character, Character Study, Conversations, Gen, Gen Fic, Pre-Season/Series 01
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-20
Updated: 2016-04-20
Packaged: 2018-06-03 09:24:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,548
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6605452
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Diary/pseuds/Diary
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cyrus tries to force the agents on Governor Grant's detail to take quizzes designed by him, and he and Tom end up discussing the latter's scoring. Complete.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Professor's Pet

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own Scandal.

“Cyrus, there’s no nice way to say this: You’re being crazy, and it’s going to hurt the campaign.”

Making a noise of protest, Cyrus says, “No, I’m trying to ensure competent people are protecting our candidate, Liv. I don’t care, I honestly don’t, about how these men and women in black suits feel about abortion or gay rights or the national debt. I don’t expect them to have degrees in criminal law, although, it could be argued that should be a requirement. But them not even having a high school understanding of how the government even works, that’s where I draw the line.”

“Cyrus-”

There’s a knock on the door.

“Come in,” he calls.

A blond agent comes in with papers in hand. “Ms Pope,” he politely greets. “Mr Beene, I’ve finished my quizzes. When would be a good time to talk to you about them? I know there are several I have wrong. I just couldn’t find the answers, sir.”

Covering her mouth, Olivia lowers her head and shakes it. “Tom,” she says, “you didn’t need to do the quizzes. None of you do. Okay? I’m sorry you wasted your time, but I’m handling it, now. Tell your fellow agents.”

“Oh, yes, they still do,” Cyrus says. Standing up, he reaches over. “Thank you- Tom what?”

“Special Agent Larsen, sir.”

“Thank you, Agent Larsen. Come back tomorrow at the same time.”

“No, don’t come back,” Olivia says. “Cyrus, you need to stop being a professor and start being a campaign manager.”

“Professor? Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t-” Tom starts.

Waving, Cyrus says, “‘Mr’ or even just Cyrus is fine. I never really got used to hearing ‘Professor’ or ‘Dr’ in front of my name. I am being a campaign manager!”

“How is subjecting agents you have no authority over to pointless quizzes being a campaign manager,” Olivia challenges.

“With all due respect, ma’am, ascertaining Governor Grant’s safety is a reasonable thing for his campaign manager to do,” Tom interjects. “And the quizzes aren’t pointless. If a person doesn’t have a basic understanding of how the government works, then, they’re charged with protecting and possibly dying for a person for reasons they may or may not even understand aside from the fact they’re getting paid. Our job calls for more motivation than just getting paid, ma’am.”

Staring for a few seconds, Cyrus smiles. “I have a feeling you did very well, Tom.”

“I tried, sir.”

Throwing up her hands, Olivia says, “Sorry, Cy, but you’ve forced me to take this to Fitz. I’m glad Tom here is being such a good sport, but I promise you, if you try to genuinely force the other agents to do these quizzes, you will cause a lot of damage to the campaign.”

She stalks over to the door.

Tom opens it for her, and once she’s gone, he inquires, “Same time tomorrow?”

“Yes,” Cyrus answers.

…

The next day, there’s a knock on the door.

“Come in,” Cyrus calls.

Tom comes in and starts to close the door.

“Leave it open, and sit down,” Cyrus orders.

When Tom does, Cyrus tells him, “You missed four questions. I’m throwing two of those out. One of them, upon reflection, I admit that the phrasing was ambiguous. The second one, it was a trick question. 56% of grad students get it wrong. I just wanted to see who would and wouldn’t even put in the effort to try to find the answer.”

Tom nods. “And the other two?”

Leaning back, Cyrus studies him. “You can go, Tom. Governor Grant has made it clear I’m to listen to Olivia and not subject you and your fellow agents to assessment quizzes.”

“I’d still like to discuss the answers, sir.”

“Really?”

“Yes,” Tom answers.

Cyrus opens his desk, digs through it, and withdraws the papers. “On question 43, you answered…”

…

“Tom, you got 87 wrong. Accept it.”

“With all due respect, I got 43 wrong. I’m willing to accept that. However, by your own admission, 87 was a largely subjective question. Aside from you not liking my answer, how is it concretely wrong?”

“I asked you what would motivate you to protect someone you disagreed with on a personal and/or political level, and you answered, ‘I’m apolitical,’ and proceeded to give me a breakdown of how good of an agent you are. And yes, it’s all very impressive, but it doesn’t answer the question.”

“It clearly answers the question, sir. I am trained to react when the person I’m charged with protecting is in danger. I’m trained to recognise the signs that they might be in danger and how to try to prevent it. I assure you, if my person is in danger, I’m not going to be thinking about how this habit of theirs annoys me or how this bill they voted on last month was a stupid move on their part.”

Rubbing his head, Cyrus says, “What you said yesterday- I hate it when people claim to be apolitical. In some ways, everything is political. Olivia misuses the word. She has deeply held political beliefs, and she backs whoever espouses or just doesn’t conflict with those beliefs, regardless of that person’s party. That makes her an independent.”

“Now, I don’t care how you feel about gay marriage, three-strikes laws, or whether that inbred Phelps clan picketing funerals of fallen soldiers has the right to or not. If you’re one of those people who doesn’t vote, I’m really not happy about that, but fine, it’s not my business when it comes to your job. But you get a gay candidate, it gets out that the teenage daughter of some politician had an abortion, you’re forced to trail after someone who makes your skin crawl with every breath they take, I want to know what besides money causes you to stow your feelings and protect them.”

Tom is quiet for a long minute.

“I took a class once on Greek mythology, sir. One day, someone said something about some hot button political issue at the time. I don’t remember who said it or what the issue was, but somehow, the conversation got around to the Secret Service, and I still remember very clearly all my professor had to say.”

“First, she explained the differences between a democratic society and a republic. Then, she said that, elected officials have a duty to serve their country. If they don’t fulfil these duties, their fellow citizens have the right to remove them. Unless that happens, however, the Secret Service has a duty to ensure that their official is safe so that they may fulfil those duties.”

“That’s just the generalised version of what she said, I’d have to repeat her verbatim to give you a full idea of what the point of what she said was. But I look at it like: Whoever I’m assigned to, in some ways, they are mine. I get to tell them whether they can go somewhere or not, if they can, I get to tell them how they can go there, to a certain extent, I control who they can and can’t have contact with, and so on.”

“This is my part in ensuring the republic continues to stand. I don’t get to tell them how to vote. I don’t get to tell them how to think. That would be counterproductive. Likewise, it’s my job to largely do whatever they want. They can tell me how to dress, they own a majority of my time, if there’s vomit or trash on the floor, I’ll probably be the one cleaning it up.”

“If I don’t like them, then, my only option is to hope their fellow citizens will legally choose someone else soon. I do understand how bad the consequences could be if they were killed or severely injured, and I will do everything, including give my life, to prevent those consequences. And yes, sir, maybe everything is political in some ways, but again, I’ve always felt it counterproductive to try to shape the nation in one way with voting or any sort of activism when I might be charged with protecting someone who is actively trying to reshape it in a way contrary to mine.”

“I can either try to personally affect this country, or I can make sure that the billions of citizens of it always have the right and ability to do so. I choose the latter.”

Looking at him, Cyrus takes a shaky breath. “You should have written that. I don’t agree with all of it, but you definitely should have written that down. Okay. Here’s the deal: I’m not willing to give you full points, because, that answer you gave on the quiz wasn’t a good one. Since, however, it’s clear that you did understand the question and were able to expand on your answer and make it a good one, I will give you some credit for it.”

Nodding, Tom says, “Understood, sir.”

“I think that’s all. You can go, now.”

Tom stands up. “Far be it from me to question Governor Grant’s decisions, but personally, I think having all agents take your quizzes would be a good way of determining who should and shouldn’t be on his detail.”

“Thank you, Tom.”

Giving him a small smile, Tom leaves.


End file.
